I decided to go Geocaching yesterday for the first time in quite a few months. I wound up running a few errands while I was out. I managed to attempt to find 2 caches, though.

I say “attempt” becuase that’s exactly what I did. It had snowed the night before (about 5 inches or so, piling up to a foot in some places due to wind) that seemed to make my attempt a bit more difficult. So, needless to say, I came up empty handed, 0 for 2 yesterday.

After I was leaving my last cache, which was supposed to be located in the graveyard of the old insane asylum, I decided it was time to head home. I made a right turn onto a pretty busy street when I heard a loud metallic “SNAP!”.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” I thought.

SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE went my right front tire.

“Maybe it’s just a chunk of ice, but I better slow down and take a look.”

HOOOONK! went the car behind me, as I slowed down and tried to pull off to the side of a busy street where parking is not allowed.

“Well, maybe I can make it to that gas station up ahead,” I thought.

sniff … sniff ….. I smelled something that smelled like burning rubber.

“oh, that can’t be good.”

I decided to ignore the honking behind me, I turned on my hazard lights, and pulled over to the side of the road.  I got out of my van and looked at my front driver’s side tire. It was leaning like this: /

“Yep, that’s not good.”

A cop car pulled up behind me, I explained what was going on and he was nice enough to call a tow truck for me. The tow truck guy was nice enough to give me a ride home as well, for the low-low price of $68.00.

He dropped my van off at my mechanic’s shop, who was closed by this time of night. So I woke up early this morning and called.

“I suppose you’re wondering why that van is out there with a bum wheel?”

“Well, I assumed it was because it was broken.” replied the ever-witty mechanic.

“BRILLIANT!”

I jabbered with him a bit, and told him I’d stop by to drop off the keys.  The good news is he thinks it’s just a broken ball joint, and wont cost me must more than $125 or so.

This of course has to happen while I’m in the process of looking to buy a new vehicle. I get to pour more money into a van that I’ll be lucky if I get $500 or so for a trade-in value.

*SIGH*

Normally I like going geocaching….